A New Era for NHS Innovation: ‘Innovator Passports’

Kamiya Crabtree
An actual conventional UK passport.

This week, the UK Government announced a key step forward for healthcare innovation: the introduction of ‘innovator passports’ — a digital fast-track system with the aim to transform how new medical technologies are adopted across the NHS.

Under the 10 Year Health Plan, this new approach seeks to address a longstanding issue in the UK health system: slow and siloed adoption of proven technologies. It is not uncommon for medical device companies to face repeated compliance checks and duplicative requests from multiple NHS trusts, even when their technology has already been successfully assessed somewhere else.

The innovator passport will change this.

Over the next two years, the MedTech Compass platform, developed by the Department of Health and Social Care, will act as a central hub where evidence-backed innovations are logged, assessed, and made visible across the NHS. If a product passes a thorough assessment in one trust, other trusts will no longer need to duplicate the process.

At Mantra Systems, we see this as a substantial step toward lowering regulatory friction and unlocking faster, more consistent access to life-changing innovations. It’s also a boost for MedTech developers navigating the complex world of NHS procurement and compliance.

The prospective impact is apparent:

  • Proven treatments (like infection-reducing wound dressings or rapid diagnostic tools) can be scaled faster
  • Patients benefit sooner from the best possible care
  • NHS resources are saved through reduced process duplication

As regulatory professionals, we’re excited to see a push toward streamlined, evidence-driven adoption, and we’ll be watching closely as the innovator passports roll out.

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